THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 8-06-06: PHENOMENON; Degradation Inc.

By Aimee Molloy

Published: August 6, 2006

Of all the things Rufus Hannah regrets -- discovering alcohol at age 14, living homeless for 12 years -- it is his notoriety that haunts him. Every time someone recognizes him, he told me recently, he feels ''so ashamed.'' Hannah, known to his fans as Rufus the Stunt Bum, is one of the inadvertent stars of a DVD series called ''Bumfights.'' Filmed on the streets of suburban San Diego and Las Vegas, the videos portray homeless people fighting one another, being pushed down hills in shopping carts and jumping off buildings into Dumpsters. What unfolds looks like a cross between ''Jackass,'' MTV's stunt-based show, and a cin? v?t?ortrait of the homeless as addicted, crazy and desperate enough to, for a little cash, light their hair on fire, pull out a tooth with pliers and have ''Bumfights'' tattooed on their bodies.

Hannah, who is 51 and an Army veteran, became involved with Bumfights more than five years ago, when Ryan McPherson, a high-school student and aspiring filmmaker, offered him $5 to run headfirst into milk crates stacked in the parking lot of a grocery store in El Cajon, Calif. ''He told me he was doing a video for his economics class on what it was like when you don't have a job,'' Hannah said. ''I just wanted some money to get drunk, so I did what he told me to. I never had any idea the stuff he was filming would become what it did.''

What it became, according to the film's producers, was the ''fastest-selling independent video series.'' Released in 2002, the first ''Bumfights'' sold for $19.95, mainly through the Bumfights Web site. Soon after, McPherson and his fellow filmmakers sold the rights for $1.5 million to two Las Vegas producers, who have since churned out sequels. Sales, initially modest but steady, exploded after Howard Stern featured the video on air. Within six months, revenues neared $600,000.

After the media attention, McPherson and the original filmmakers were charged with conspiracy to stage an illegal fight, a misdemeanor. They pleaded guilty and were ordered to do community service. (McPherson was recently sent to jail for failing to complete his community service.)

Many homeless people in the video seem drunk, stoned or mentally ill. Hannah said he was never sober during filming and participated for the money (at most $10 per stunt). In one recurring segment called ''Bum Hunter,'' a young man in safari clothes sneaks up on sleeping homeless people. He binds and gags them, then ''marks'' them by writing a number on their foreheads.

The National Coalition for the Homeless, calling the films ''degrading'' and ''sickening,'' began a campaign against ''Bumfights'' soon after its debut. The coalition approached retailers and asked them to ''stop selling hate.''

Myra Mendible, a professor of cultural studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, says the films reflect a trend. ''Reality television has created an audience that is not only desensitized to images of human suffering but also has acquired an appetite for them.'' McPherson, who is unapologetic, says ''Bumfights'' was ''fresh and new'' and simply filled the demand for more shocking material.

The homeless coalition says it fears that the films have contributed to teenage violence against the homeless, especially because viewers are encouraged to submit ''ruckus'' footage of their own. According to law-enforcement officials, a number of young people have videotaped themselves attacking homeless people, including four teenagers in Melbourne, Australia, who killed a man by setting fire to his tent; five in Alberta, Canada, who assaulted a homeless man with bottles and a club, then urinated on his face; and four young men near Cleveland, who crept up on homeless people and shocked them with a stun gun.

Hannah, who says he has been sober for three years and is employed and no longer homeless, recently settled a lawsuit with the filmmakers. They agreed to an undisclosed amount in damages and to not use his image in future videos. He is also working with the homeless coalition toward legislation that would make violence against the homeless a hate crime. Meanwhile, the current ''Bumfights'' producers have just released ''Bumfights 4.''